The Last Of Us TV adaptation has added two new directors to its production, according to a report from Deadline. Jasmila Žbanić, the Bosnian film director best known for Quo vadis, Aida, and Ali Abbasi, the Iranian-Swedish director best known for Shelley and Border, will be joining Kantemir Balagov, who recently stepped in to direct the adaptation’s pilot after Johan Renck left the project due to scheduling conflicts.
The Last Of Us adaptation will cover the events of the first game, in which Joel, (The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal), a hardened smuggler travels across what remains of a pandemic-ridden U.S with a 14-year-old Ellie, (Game Of Thrones’ Bella Ramsey), to deliver her to the Fireflies in a bid to create a vaccine for the Cordyceps virus.
The series has been developed in partnership between the game’s director, Neil Druckmann, and Chernobyl’s Craig Mazin. The two of them will write and executive produce the adaptation.
Recently, Gabriel Luna, (Agents of SHIELD and Terminator: Dark Fate), was confirmed to star alongside Pascal and Ramsey as Joel’s younger brother, and former Firefly Tommy Miller. Quo vadis, Aida was nominated at Sunday’s Academy Awards for the Best International Film Feature Oscar, while Abbasi picked up the Un Certain Regard Award for directing Border, also known as Gräns at Cannes Film Festival in 2018.
Druckmann recently detailed the process of adapting the game for television, indicating that certain episodes of the series would “deviate greatly” from Naughty Dog’s source material.
Both Druckmann and Mazin agreed that “the philosophical underpinnings of the story” were crucial to the adaptation’s success. “Some of my favorite episodes so far have deviated greatly from the story, and I can’t wait for people to see them.”
Elsewhere, there’s even talk that a PS5 remake of The Last Of Us may be in development.
